The Eden Project opened back in 2001 with a mission to ‘[celebrate] plants and the natural world’ and to ‘regenerate damaged landscapes’. Still going strong almost 25 years later, those goals are being achieved, especially the latter.
A baobab tree, which is native to Africa, has been growing in the Eden Project’s Rainforest Biome for more than two decades. Now, for the first time ever in the UK, it’s begun to flower, which means it could be about to produce a rare ‘superfruit’.
RECOMMENDED: The northern Eden Project is expected to open by 2028.
The baobab, known by some as the ‘Tree of Life’, and to science as ‘Adansonia digitata’, can live for more than two millennia – carbon dating revealed the oldest known specimen to be 2100 years old at time of death.
And that’s not where its superpowers end. The baobab fruit that it grows contains three times as much calcium as a glass of milk, three times the vitamin C of an orange, and is half fibre. Next time you’ve got a sore stomach, you know what to reach for.
In fact, the only issue with this tree is that it’s just too good of a resource. The trunk is so full of water that elephants in the wild will sometimes tear these trees down for hydration, and every single part of the plant, from the bark to the leaves, is packed full of vitamins and minerals that people and animals have a tendency to over-harvest it, leaving it under threat of becoming endangered. There are eight species strains of this three, and six of them are currently at risk. That’s why the Eden Project, and other conservation efforts, are essential.
Part of aiding the conservation of baobab trees for the Eden Project has been working with the companies PhytoTrade Africa and TreeCrops Ltd to generate a sustainable, ethical supply of baobabs from Malawi and Ghana. If you fancy trying out the superfruit yourself, you can buy anything from baobab powder to chocolate to jam at the Eden Project’s online store.
Andy Jasper, who works as the CEO for the project, said that it was ‘incredible’ to see three flowers appearing on the tree. He said: ‘We’re fairly confident this has never happened before. We have five stunning baobabs in our Rainforest Biome, and this particular tree has been with us since the very beginning.
‘These only flower for a short period of time, so I’d encourage anyone in the area to come and see this botanical wonder for yourselves.’
But will these flowers definitely bear fruits? Only time will tell. According to Andy, the venue’s ‘expert horticulturalists will be carefully hand pollinating the flowers over the coming weeks in the hopes of producing the large velvety fruits, which can grow up to 20cm in length’. So unfortunately, all we can do now is wait and see if it’s possible for these magical fruits to blossom in England.
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